Health and Well-Being of Employees
The KLK Group believes that health and safety is a compulsory entitlement for our workforce, contractors, suppliers, visitors and the general public. We ensure that the best practices for safety and health are integrated into our daily operations and activities. We also strive to provide the best measures and tools to enable our workforce to feel safe and secure in their workplace.
The COVID-19 pandemic has triggered a paradigm shift in work processes. Hence, working processes are continuously reviewed to ensure that the daily workings and our employees remain efficient and effective despite the “new normal”. Briefing sessions and training workshops are held to create better awareness of the possible dangers in different scenarios.
Types of Work-Related Injury
Majority of incidents reported involve harvesting, fruit evacuation and field upkeep activities. The main causes of injury include but are not limited to thorn pricks, cuts from sharp tools, eye injury or irritation from falling debris, and bruises and cuts from falling fruits and fronds.
Other accidents include commuting accidents, trips and falls, heavy lifting injuries and insect bites.
Work-Related Ill Health
KLK complies with regulatory requirements to conduct health surveillances of employees who are identified to be working in an environment that may pose potential risks to health. These include workers who come in contact with potentially hazardous chemicals or loud noises produced by machineries. Depending on their work environment, employees are periodically assessed with the Chemical Health Risk Assessment (“CHRA”) or the Noise Risk Assessment (“NRA”). If needed, they are sent for further medical surveillance with all expenses are borne by the Company.
Safety and Health Committees
In ensuring our workforce concerns and thoughts on safety and health are heard, the Company’s Safety &
Health Committees at all of our OC, meets regularly.
Each committee consists of the representatives from
KLK and representatives from employees. This ensures, that collectively, safety and health at the Company is continuously improved and worked upon. KLK currently has 3,167 SHC members at its Plantation OCs and KLK OLEO.
Occupational Safety and Health Compliance at Plantation Segment
KLK Occupational, Safety and Health (“OSH”) Management System was introduced in September 2005 through the KLK OSH Group Policy Manual. It was established based on the MS 1722:2011 – Occupational Safety and Health Management Systems and aims to fulfill the requirements of all OSH laws and regulations. The implementation of this manual was to develop a sustainable OSH culture in the organisation whereby it can contribute to the protection of employees and stakeholders from hazards through the elimination of work-related injuries, disabilities, ill health, diseases, near misses and fatalities. The manual also provides consistency in the implementation of OSH Management and creates an internal responsibility system in the management, monitoring and continual improvement of OSH matters concerning all plantation employees and stakeholders regardless of scope of work.
OSH COMMITTEE REPRESENTATIVES
Risk management is carried out by:
Identifying hazards
Assessing risks using a Risk Matrix Table in compliance with the Department of Occupational, Safety and Health requirements
Controlling risk by eliminating hazards in a manner as such that the hazard does not pose as risks to
any workers
Accidents LTI1 Frequency
Rate*
LTI Severity
Rate**
Fatality
Malaysia 2 27.74 530.77
Indonesia 2 54.62 485.23
1 LTI: Lost Time Injury
* Incidents/1 million man-hours worked
** Days lost due to LTI/1 million man-hours worked
We regret to report four (4) occupational fatalities during the FY. The causes of these fatalities were work-related, two (2) involving motor vehicle, one (1) mill line site incident and one (1) work equipment incident.
Lower accident rates result in lower staff turnover, lower absenteeism and higher productivity. Therefore, we take necessary steps to reduce/prevent accidents and injuries.
Operating under a system of continuous improvement, the Plantation OSH Department reviews the LTI on a monthly basis. The results are collated and analysed. These results will help us take action to improve the LTI rate and the severity rate of our LTI. Our LTI rate is a reflection of the commitment and joint efforts between Management, Safety and Health Officers, Safety and Health Committees, workers and contractors.
Male Female Total
Malaysia 996 202 1,198
Indonesia 762 102 864
Liberia 20 4 24
OSH Training
Compliance at KLK OLEO
Similar to our Plantation segment, KLK OLEO also provides internal and external training to enhance our employees’
OSH skills and awareness, specifically tailored to downstream operations.
Accidents LTI1 Frequency
Rate*
LTI Severity
Rate**
Fatality
Malaysia 0 1.87 73.98
Indonesia 0 0 0
Other Countries
0 2.89 51.18
* Incidents/1 million man-hours worked
* Days lost due to LTI/1 million man-hours worked
We are proud to announce that two (2) of our locations in the Netherlands - Moerdijk and Delden, combined have reached one million (1,000,000) man hours with lost-time injury (“LTI Free”). In Moerdijk, the last LTI was 3 August 2019 and Delden recorded its last LTI on 18 June 2019.
This is the longest period that both locations are LTI Free.
Safety and Health Committees
Male Female Total
Malaysia 86 21 107
Indonesia 13 2 15
Other Countries
59 12 71
COVID-19
In early 2020, the coronavirus pandemic struck the world, affecting people, communities, and economies everywhere. COVID-19 is, above all, a health crisis with significant socio-economic implications. Recognising our role as an employer and active member of our community, KLK has taken proactive measures to ensure the health and safety of our staff and local communities while fulfilling our commitments to our customers and partners.
Health Booster Packs were distributed to KLK employees to help them stay healthy and safe during COVID-19 pandemic.
As prevention is better than cure, we also distributed Health Booster Packs which contained DavosLife E3 Complete tocotrienols, Vitamin C, hand sanitisers and a thermometer to our employees to help our employees to stay safe and healthy.
EMPLOYEE WELFARE Housing and Living Amenities
In KLK, the well-being of our employees have always been our utmost priority. We constantly emphasise on the importance of safety and health, as well as a conducive working and living environment for our employees and their families.
Over the years, we have been steadfast in taking concrete steps to upgrade and conduct regular maintenance on our existing housing facilities while constructing new houses to meet ongoing requirements.
KLK’s workers’ housing at Pinang Palm Oil Mill in Tawau region, Sabah.
Free housing for employees in KLK estates.
Clinic for all workers in Ladang Lekir, Perak.
Place of worship for Muslim workers in Ladang Lekir, Perak.
COVID-19 swab tests in Ladang Tuan Mee, Selangor.
Amongst our efforts to curb COVID-19 within our employees include organising vaccination campaigns. The campaign is to ensure all our employees are vaccinated and safe. Trainings and seminars are held regularly to share information on COVID-19. Aside from that, information is also being distributed via brochures and displaying posters on bulletin boards. We also provide all our employees with hand sanitisers, soaps and masks.
Apart from essential living amenities like clean water, electricity and healthcare facilities, KLK continues to provide other infrastructures such as sporting facilities, places of worship, creches and child care centres.
The latter two facilities give our employees peace of mind while they work in the knowledge that their young ones are well taken care of.
Healthy Lifestyle
The COVID-19 pandemic has presented both employers and employees with a whole new set of challenges to contend with. With many teams working remotely, communication and bonds between colleagues have become restricted. When we were inching towards normalcy the Group took several steps to reinforce employee bonding to promote healthy lifestyle by organising activities with strict Standard Operating Procedures in place.
Acrylic Painting Session for employees of KLK OLEO in Petaling Jaya.
Baking Class for employees of Ipoh Head Office.
Sports Day for employees of Taiko Palm-Oleo (Zhangjiagang) in China.
At KLK, we strive to ensure long-term sustainability of our business by creating shared value for both our shareholders and the society. We endeavour to strike a right balance of business performance, environmental responsibility and the people.